At least 69 Kurdish fighters and 2 Turkish officers have been killed in four days of military operations near the Syrian and Iraqi borders against the members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in southeast Turkey, military sources told Reuters.

"Are you trying to be heroic by sending six generals and 10,000 soldiers against a few PKK (members) in Cizre?" the leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party Selahattin Demirtas asked the government, as cited by AFP.

Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to continue the operation until the area is cleansed of Kurdish militants.

"We need to see concrete results. There must be no single armed element in Turkey," said the official. "We cannot direct our resources against IS in an effective way because of the PKK, especially in border regions."

Ankara has been conducting military operations in southeast Turkey since summer 2015. Tensions have been mounting for months as security forces have been battling Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants after a ceasefire collapsed in July.

The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey said that at least 52 curfews have been imposed since mid-August across seven provinces in the region, affecting areas where some 1.3 million people live.The PKK, which was founded in 1978, has been fighting the Turkish state since 1984 for Kurdish self-determination. Kurds make up between 10 percent and 25 percent of Turkey’s population. The organization is considered as a terrorist group by Turkey, the US and NATO.